I interviewed the founder of Yacht Harbour, a media company that aims to provide a clear view into the yachting industry for UHNWIs, industry professionals and yacht enthusiasts
Carolina Rodríguez Hernández: What is Yacht Harbour?
Dimitri Semenikhin: Yacht Harbour is a media company that aims to provide a clear view into the yachting industry for UHNWIs, industry professionals and yacht enthusiasts. Not only does it cover daily news and publish in-depth reports, Yacht Harbour also holds the world's largest database of super yachts available for sale and charter. By connecting users directly with central agents, without taking any commission ourselves, we're allowing our users to get the best possible price by reducing friction between the owner's representative and the client.
CRH: What does Yacht Harbour mean for you?
DS: Yacht Harbour stands for transparency and data in the yachting world. For me it's a platform that makes information more accessible, which is famously hard to get to in the super yacht industry. This is also why I'm actively involved in non-profit associations that promote transparency in yachting.
CRH: When did you first feel attracted to establishing Yacht Harbour? Is it something you always envisioned, or has it developed over time?
DS: I've always been interested in yachting and have been exposed to it from a young age. A few years ago, friends asked me to help them find a suitable yacht to purchase. In the following year and a half, I used extensively almost every yacht search tool there was, spoke with dozens of yacht brokers and visited tens of yachts all around the Med until I eventually found the right option available for 50% less than similar deals.
At that point I realized that there was a lack in efficiency in yacht search and decided to set up Yacht Harbour. As I'm a developer myself, I coded our first prototype version which we used to get the first brokerage agencies onboard in 2014. Today, our combined channels reach over 5,000,000 monthly impressions and we have a database of over 1,000 super yachts available for sale and charter.
CRH: Which is your favorite destination to disconnect from work?
DS: I've spent most of the company's first year positioning Yacht Harbour as a search platform and not a news site. However, despite the tremendous growth of our database usage, our news department has somehow grown exponentially and today accounts for near 50% of traffic.
This in turn means that we need to monitor the field 24/7 which makes it hard to disconnect. When I do however, yachts are my favorite choice.
CRH: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
DS: I think work/life balance is key and it's something I'm actively trying to implement as Yacht Harbour keeps growing.
CRH: What's next in your business life and for Yacht Harbour?
DS: There are several projects we're currently working on at Yacht Harbour, all of which are axed on our vision to make access to information easier in yachting. I wouldn't rule out that I might someday start another digital brand, in another industry but I still believe that Yacht Harbour will continue to be a large part of my life for the foreseeable future.
